By Jim Rossignol on August 12th, 2011 at 3:51 pm.
The moves! They are becoming clearer. As many of you speculated, it seems that the retail version of Battlefield 3 will indeed require Origin to be installed on your computer in order to play it. Oh Twitter, how did we find out brief snippets of information (or organise anarchic uprisings against the grim hegemony of shoe shops) before you existed?
This admission by EA probably goes some way to explaining why the game won’t appear on Steam, because it would basically entail two Steam-like systems being folded around the game, and they would inevitably fight like giant sperm whales versus kraken in the magnetic depths of your hard-drive. Such a conflict would undoubtedly cause electronic terribleness to occur, and no-one wants that. That’s my understanding of the technical situation, at least. I suspect there are also overriding commercial monsters pulling the levers behind the scenes. This is the game could spread Origin about in the game-o-sphere, just as Counter-Strike and Half-Life 2 propagated Steam.
Anyone have any thoughts on this? I am betting that you do.
12/08/2011 at 15:55 acidtestportfolio says:
i’m probably going to stay away from this
i never liked steam in it’s infancy, but the steam of then and now are two entirely different things
however, with ea’s track record, i think i’ll give BF3 a wide berth until it goes on sale for cheap
12/08/2011 at 15:56 acidtestportfolio says:
and that includes dlc and all optional gubbins
i want all the things for cheap
12/08/2011 at 16:12 pepper says:
Same here, I really dont need yet another service to play games. Just give me a bloody CD-key and a DVD and I will be happy. Screw all these accounts you need to register nowadays.
Oh well, it wasnt really worth it without modding anyway.
12/08/2011 at 16:53 D3xter says:
http://gamekeyfinder.de/games/Battlefield_3.html
Just sayin…
12/08/2011 at 16:58 povu says:
To be fair, EA is doing the exact same thing Valve did with Half Life 2: Making a new game from a popular series dependant on a new digital distribution service in order to persuade people to start using it. Nothing inherently wrong with that. It’s not like Steam was that great back then either. But it worked out great for Valve.
But yes for the consumers it’s annoying that we’re going to have to run multiple of these services.
12/08/2011 at 17:30 p4warrior says:
@povu: the big difference this time around is that they’ve pulled it from the major seller of the game, Steam. When HL2 required Steam, Valve still didn’t pull it from Wal-Mart.
12/08/2011 at 17:46 AlonePlusEasyTarget says:
Look to your right, get that one instead.
12/08/2011 at 18:31 Amun says:
@pepper: Ahoy there matey!
12/08/2011 at 18:55 Wulf says:
Another big difference is that Valve are a privately owned company which–for the most part–seem to me to have the interests of the consumer as a consideration. EA is a much bigger and publically owned company that has to answer to shareholders, in a scenario where people are wallets and the shareholders are the only non-company people whom actually exist.
I know EA is only doing business, I accept and respect that, but very often I find that I don’t like how EA does business. And I’ll say again that naming their download service Origin was just a kick in the nuts for me that reopened old wounds. I’ll also say again that anyone who’d name something in such a way that would be offensive to Ultima loyalists can’t be very bright (or intelligent at all).
Considering how EA has done business in the past, how they’ve treated customers, and that the management of ‘Origin’ doesn’t strike me as particularly clever in any way that I can perceive… well, I just think that betting on Origin is a fool’s bet. And I am many things but I am not a fool. Some say that this is just the same as what Valve are doing and I get that, but Valve aren’t Steam.
There was one point where EA were as infamous as Activision now is and I’m seeing a relapse into those levels of notoriety. What you want to ask yourself is whether you’d use Origin if it was run by Activision and Kotick, and if your answer is no whereas it would be yes under EA, then you want to ask yourself why because there’s frankly no perceivable difference between how EA and Activision do business, currently.
12/08/2011 at 19:25 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
I’m far less offended by the reuse of the name Origin for this Steam-competitor than I would be if they started a studio under that name that ended up churning out terrible games.
12/08/2011 at 22:07 LionsPhil says:
p4warrior: Retail copies of HL2 still required Steam. You could buy it and run it through Steam, or you could buy it then run it through Steam.
12/08/2011 at 23:03 Vorrin says:
+1 Ultima loyalist offended by the choice of using ‘Origin’ as a name, it really feels a bit too much like mockery of the wonderful company they acquired and then butchered, which, incidentally, produced some of my by far favourite games ever.
12/08/2011 at 23:53 TheGameSquid says:
I’m pretty irritated by the use of the name too. It’s almost like: “We bought ‘em and killed ‘em so we could use their splendid name for our DD service in the future. Thanks Richard!”.
13/08/2011 at 00:40 apollyonbob says:
I like how Valve tells EA that they can’t sell BF3 through Steam, and it’s EA’s fault. EA sells through Direct2Drive, a competitor to Origin, and Impulse, another competitor to Origin, but it’s EA’s fault it’s not on Steam. Oh sure, Steam has GFWL games, but it’s because EA wants to install Origin so it’s EA’s fault. Oh sure, Steam is the publisher, not the dev, but EA is big and bad, so it’s EA’s fault. Oh sure, it’d be like Wal-Mart pulling HL2 from their shelves because of Steam, the exact opposite of the earlier example, but EA is bad, and it’s EA’s fault, so we twist the examples around. Valve has all the cards, and is making all the decisions, but it’s totally 100% EA’s fault, now, always, and forever.
It’s like EA murdered everyone’s dog at some point, I mean Jesus.
I seriously wish the cognitive dissonance of gamers could be harnessed as a power source – we could power every city on the planet for the next 1000 years.
13/08/2011 at 01:08 Jhoosier says:
“It’s like EA murdered everyone’s dog at some point, I mean Jesus.”
Read some of the replies above you regarding Ultima. Sounds like they pretty much did.
13/08/2011 at 01:09 Kittim says:
Well I’m not going to touch it yet.
And while I’m a fan of Steam now, I wasn’t when it first came out. These types of programs need to go though several versions before their stable and secure.
Plus, EA’s frankly poo effort of a DLC manager for Dragon Age: Origins hardly fills me with confidence on their programming prowess. “You can’t load this save game because you have unauthorised DLC”. Sigh, log in in-game, still not authorised. Log out, close DA, reload DA. Ah, now I can load. But you know what, I can’t be arsed, the moment’s gone. It’s the gaming equivalent of coitus with a beautiful person, only to discover a nasty rash over their genitals. Utter turn off.
13/08/2011 at 02:00 dsi1 says:
“It’s like EA murdered everyone’s dog at some point, I mean Jesus.”
They murdered Westwood and raped their games.
Same thing with Ultima too…
Anyone with half a brain is passing right by Origin and any games on it, BF3 is going to be a very poor game if just for the lack of incredibly basic features. Meanwhile RO2 is adding to their series instead of taking away from it.
13/08/2011 at 10:35 Dhatz says:
I threw it on the GROUND
13/08/2011 at 19:41 studenteternal says:
It may be worth considering too that Steam was trail blazing. From what I recall of those dim and dusty memories of years ago, there were no other digital distribution services, and certainly no major ones. Valve made steam not because they wanted to avoid their competitors, but because they saw a need that wasn’t being filled, and to be fair one I and many others also did not see. Origin is trying to do what steam already does well, and adds nothing for the consumer.
15/08/2011 at 08:43 Dan Forever says:
Quibbles about EA aside, I just don’t want another game manager program doing god knows what under the bonnet of my computer.
15/08/2011 at 14:40 Alegis says:
@povu: the store came way later. Steam was pushed as a platform for Valve to easily and automatically update their games (CS in particular) without taking the whole multiplayer scene down whenever they’d patch something.
That said Valve has done significant effort to boost PC gaming wheras EA has a spiffy track record. While Valve will offer free games and updates EA on the other hand asked for you to buy ‘download insurance’ and nickle and dime you. The difference in how they approach or view customers is staggering.
12/08/2011 at 15:55 Ephaelon says:
If Origin is to BF3 what STEAM is to TF2/LFD2 for me, with regards to stats, cloud, server browsing and the like, s’fine.
12/08/2011 at 19:35 Barnaby says:
Except that it’s not fine. This is EA. Do not trust.
13/08/2011 at 11:11 mouton says:
Yes, world black and white. Must choose white. Yes.
13/08/2011 at 16:23 Bilbo says:
What you definitely don’t want to do is think about things and come to a rational independent decision when a situation arises. No, much better to base your actions on what the body politik decided in like 1996 and spare yourself the trouble of independent thought!
Besides, I thought Activision were the ones you guys irrationally hate and tar every release over now? And also Blizzard or something?
Notch is great etc
13/08/2011 at 19:59 arccos says:
@Bilbo: How is it irrational to expect EA to continue acting the same way they have in the past? Surely its irrational to expect them to change at this point?
People beat up on EA because either EA bought and then killed a series or company the person likes, they remember EA Spouse and all of the stories that came out afterwards, or they are getting sick of being treated like criminals. For many people, the value of what EA does wrong greatly outweighs the value of what they do right.
There are also plenty of reasons to dislike many other companies in the gaming business. Its not really a “pick one” sort of situation.
12/08/2011 at 15:55 Stinkfinger75 says:
Not such a big deal really.
12/08/2011 at 16:57 jonfitt says:
Exactly. I have Impulse, Steam, EA Downloader (for BF2 expansions bought years ago), I’ll just add Origin to the list.
So long as it is not lame compared to Steam functionality-wise I don’t care.
12/08/2011 at 17:12 Lukasz says:
isin’t ea downloader now origin? you don’t need to add another thing then i believe.
12/08/2011 at 17:36 UberMonkey says:
While I think EA generally treats its customers poorly, I can deal with installing Origin to play the next Battlefield game. I also understand that they’re just doing the same thing Valve did when starting Steam (Valve had and continues to have a far better record for treating customers fairly, but that doesn’t mean EA doesn’t get the option to compete).
What bothers me about this is that this strategy will certainly reduce the actual number of players for a game that needs a large playerbase to continue operating (ie, to maintain large numbers of decent servers in different locations around the world). So while EA continues to talk about “beating” MW3, in reality they’ve severely limited the number of people who will play BF3 in order to jumpstart Origin. While I think it’s a bit silly to skip a game you wanted to play just because it’s not on Steam, I think that a number of people who were on the fence to begin with will be doing just that.
12/08/2011 at 18:11 unangbangkay says:
Same deal, here. Valve used HL2 and CS’s clout to railroad Steam in, and EA’s doing the same, using a high-profile exclusive to force Origin into greater prominence. And yes, Steam wasn’t exactly the marvel it was today way back then. There’s nothing inherently wrong with establishing a precedent, so long as it’s ultimately positive.
In that way, we (may) win out in the end. Origin now has a VERY high bar to surpass, whereas Steam was more or less unprecedented. In the ideal situation, EA will be able to improve their service to match or come close to the market leader. Net win for everyone. I’m not entirely confident in this given EA’s track record, but hey, it’s not like Valve had an amazing track record when HL2 came out either (just one game, yeah?), and especially not as a game distributor.
That said, it’s always a little uncomfortable when someone uses a big title’s clout to establish a precedent, esp. when it’s something undesirable. Look at how that guy from Id was SOOOO happy that ActiBlizz were using Diablo III’s clout to force in always-online DRM. They did the same with Modern Warfare 2 and Starcraft 2 (the $60 PC game and new Battle.net), and so on and so forth. Ubisoft’s continually trying to establish a precedent of dicking over PC gamers at every opportunity, and so on.
It’s really up to faith and seeing how it all pans out in the end.
12/08/2011 at 18:35 Amun says:
@UberMonkey:
They really need to compete in terms of quality though. Simply flipping a switch and requiring us to use a specific platform to play the game is artificial competition! If EA were confident in their new platform, they’d allow people to buy it from steam and see who came out on top.
12/08/2011 at 18:36 Commisar says:
I know, and the guy DID NOT clarify what the hell he meant. he could mean a 1 time activation at install or the client might have to be running. Based on my experiences, it will probably be the one time thing.
12/08/2011 at 15:56 NR says:
It’s not that bad. A lot of games do require steamworks, after all, and the Origin software has generally been OK when I’ve used it.
Saying that, though, I did see this: http://i.imgur.com/9W8ET.png on reddit today, so this might be an issue for certain other regions.
12/08/2011 at 15:58 Andy_Panthro says:
Whatever happened to The Internet Has No Oceans?
I humbly request an RPS hive-mind update.
12/08/2011 at 16:01 chabuhi says:
Somebody at EA was really bad at Geography or History or Political Science or something.
Wonder if they auto-select your region by your last name?
“Thank you for your order, Mr. Gutierrez – please pay in Mexican pesos and we will ship to your address in Chicago.”
12/08/2011 at 16:14 Jim Rossignol says:
“Whatever happened to The Internet Has No Oceans?”
I believe John fell asleep at the controls of it, and the idea veered off into a ditch, crashed, and caught fire. It’s still there, smouldering. It’s likely to explode and take John with it unless a plucky Lassie-type dog character doesn’t drag him from the wreckage.
12/08/2011 at 16:19 Sensai says:
Lucky guy…he doesn’t have to buy EA products on the PC.
Oh wait, neither do I! Huzzah!
12/08/2011 at 16:26 patricij says:
Wonder if they auto-select your region by your last name?
Oh, great…so, I will just change my name to John Doe and I can buy stuff in dollars, woo!
12/08/2011 at 17:42 PetiteGreve says:
I think they detect the Windows language setting, and since Puerto Ricans primary language is spanish (english is their official secondary language), their computers are set to “spanish”.
Origin devs thought that “spanish” language = Spain only.
Fun facts :
1) Puerto Rico does NOT have its own money. They use United State Dollars. USD.
2) Wikipedia : “The United States Congress legislates over many fundamental aspects of Puerto Rican life, including citizenship, currency, postal service, foreign affairs, military defense, communications, labor relations, the environment, commerce, finance, health and welfare, and many others.[59][60]”
3) Congresional Research Service (2011 Report) (www.crs.gov) ” For example, residents of Puerto Rico hold U.S. citizenship, serve in the military, are subject to federal laws, and are represented in the House of Representatives by a Resident Commissioner elected to a four-year term.”
=> So you only have USD in your country, you’re getting your ass blowed up in the Middle-East for Uncle Sam, you pay some of the USA taxes, can vote for some of the USA elections, must respect US federal laws, but you’re not accept on “Origin” (sic) because of your… origins.
Nice way to discriminate its customers, a great comeback of the “Offer void In Nebraska”, but this time for no reasons at all.
Or maybe these two : Complete ignorance of the devteam behind Origin ? Overall total lack of respect of EA for its customers ?
12/08/2011 at 15:56 Oryon says:
No thanks. I’m waiting for this to shake itself free of Origin before i buy it.
12/08/2011 at 16:03 chabuhi says:
Do you think there’s a chance of that? It sounds like Origin is the DRM.
12/08/2011 at 16:04 skinlo says:
You will never play it.
12/08/2011 at 16:12 bear912 says:
…
Legally.
12/08/2011 at 16:36 ArcaneSaint says:
Dun dun dun
12/08/2011 at 23:54 ericks says:
Or you know, rent it for 360.
13/08/2011 at 19:45 studenteternal says:
@skinlo Oh no! I will miss playing a first person shooter, I wonder when another decent one of those will come out… And its multiplayer /swoon.
12/08/2011 at 15:56 chabuhi says:
Why am I feeling more and more compelled to avoid Origin? I’m really not a Steam fanboy, I guess I just like having one place to shop. Maybe I trust Valve more than I trust EA. But why should I care? I really think I shouldn’t, but for some reason I do.
But, damn, I really want to play BF3!
12/08/2011 at 16:11 Calneon says:
Then buy it. Don’t let the delivery method stop you.
12/08/2011 at 16:21 Durkonkell says:
This is almost exactly how I feel.
Although the more I think about it, the more it seems that the reason for my ambivalence is “I think EA have probably lied to me about the reasons for their games disappearing from Steam”. Hmm.
12/08/2011 at 17:40 Cyampagn says:
Oh fuck; a big company which doesn’t give a crap about all of us LIED to us. Lets not buy their games, we’ll make the difference.
You people are amazing; ranting on the interwebz has gone uphill on the last couple of years, and it’s becoming ridiculous. I don’t usually use this word, but crybabies? Yes, that definitely defines all of you, raging about something that noone with half a brain would let it bother him.
Origin works just fine, gosh.
12/08/2011 at 17:46 Zogtee says:
“…raging about noone with half a braing would let it bother him.”
Oh, the things I could do if I only had half a braing.
But yeah, fuck people with OPINIONS and shit! Who do they think they are, talking about stuff on the internetz!
12/08/2011 at 18:38 Commisar says:
good Christ, YOU can get it from ALOT of other sources, plus that damn comment was so vague, I’m not sure what he meant. it could just be a ONE TIME install validation. But, if means that much to you, i will have all the fun you won’t be having in BF3 :)
14/08/2011 at 22:25 Zephro says:
Basically I agree. I’m not a Steam fanboy.
But I can’t be bothered with another kind of DRM, another set of login details, an inferior service in terms of community etc. higher prices.
Frankly I’ll just keep playing TF2 and avoid this now.
“I think EA have probably lied to me about the reasons for their games disappearing from Steam”
I’m also getting that. This whole fiasco has just eroded trust and I can’t be bothered buying a game after these shenanigans.
15/08/2011 at 14:03 majestyk says:
Considering how EA fucked up some (non-gaming-related) parts of BF2, Origin can maybe solve some of those without making the game itself bad. In BF2, updates were a bitch, 1.5GB which MUST BE unpacked to your C:/ Drive before installing? And the server browser, multiplayer games and server browsers are now in use for how many years, and still everyone achieves to fuck this up in mindboggling varieties.
I’d be more happy if this wasn’t tied to yet another digital download service, but I guess I can at least wait and see how this turns out before ranting about it to hell and back.
12/08/2011 at 15:57 Teddy Leach says:
I’m getting in before the people who think this is the worst thing to ever happen to them. Oh god, I can hear them coming.
12/08/2011 at 17:23 Aluschaaf says:
Too late, the “fine, now I can steal it”-crowd already arrived. Bloody looters.
12/08/2011 at 23:31 rayne117 says:
Except looting takes away a PHYSICAL product from the owners.
13/08/2011 at 02:03 dsi1 says:
“Too late, the ‘fine, now I can steal it’-crowd already arrived. Bloody looters.”
BF3 is in stores already?
Not even worth the risk of being caught stealing it imo.
12/08/2011 at 15:57 GetUpKidAK says:
It clearly just requires Origin so EA can have “direct access with their customers in order to offer a better service.”
Sorry, I meant “charge more for it without having to give money to anyone else.”
12/08/2011 at 17:21 drewski says:
If a game is too expensive for the entertainment content you will get from it, don’t buy it. Why does the platform matter? Why do you care if EA or Valve or Rupert Murdoch or CD Projekt or anyone else gets a cut or doesn’t?
12/08/2011 at 17:52 PetiteGreve says:
^ haha @”it’s too expensive don’t buy it”, completely forgetting they’re not selling chairs or sandwiches but a specific video-games. If you want to play a BF-like game, you don’t have the choice, it’s EA or nothing.
You can’t make a Battlefield-clone without getting sued by DICE/EA, hated for not “innovating” and spliting the Battlefield-like playerbase. EA has de facto a monopoly over the “Battlefield” sector, and they’re trying to squeeze as much money as they can (until the IP die and the playerbase is looted by another vehicles+classes FPS).
That’s why everyone should be allowed to rage about any decisions EA takes (imo), the whole “great power => great responsibility” stuff.
12/08/2011 at 19:07 GetUpKidAK says:
I don’t have a problem with the cost of the game, it’s EA’s handling of the Steam/Origin situation that I object to.
Issuing vague statements with the intention of making another company look like the bad guy is very old-school EA.
12/08/2011 at 19:21 Tyshalle says:
The platform matters.
1. If enough people fail to buy this game because it requires Origin be installed, then the game is not going to have the longevity of previous titles.
2. If Origin does not take off in any meaningful way, what does that mean for the games you have on there? This could go the way of the numerous MMO’s that have shut down and prevented any of their paying customers from playing at all. Sure, maybe BF3 is too big to fail, but is it big enough to keep Origin afloat?
The differences between now and nearly a decade ago is that when Steam came out, digital distribution just wasn’t a thing. Steam innovated, and they not only took a major risk when no one else thought it would pan out, but they’ve also treated their customers exceedingly well to become the DD behemoth that they are today. The problem with Origin is that EA is not innovating. They are literally copying the same exact idea that’s already been done, with fewer features, and are forcing players to adopt their new software if they want to play their games. I realize that Valve did the same thing, but it’s different: There wasn’t anything like Steam out before. They weren’t denying anyone from purchasing their game from wherever they wanted.
And frankly, Origin just stinks of a money-grabbing gimmick. Saturating the marketplace without new ideas is not a recipe for success. Look at the MMO genre, and how many MMO’s have gone down in flames as a result of just copying every other idea out there. Correct me if you think I’m wrong, but this Origin thing doesn’t appear to me to be EA trying to fill a need in the marketplace that other Digital Distributor’s aren’t covering. They’re not going after a demographic of potential customers that aren’t currently being catered to. All this is, is EA trying to steal existing customers from other services. Sure, their biggest target right now is Steam, but let’s not pretend that this doesn’t threaten the other DD’s that are currently selling EA.
My problem is, Origin does not seem like it’s destined to last. They are not innovating. They are not meeting some marketplace need or drawing from customers currently not being served. They are not coming up with a single unique idea that would bring happy customers away from Steam. Instead, they’re not giving people any other choice. They’re forcing them to do this when there are other, better services already established.
You can shrug this off, as I’m sure many people will. But I just have no faith in the longevity of this service, and even if I did, I have a hard time supporting a company that is denying me choices, offering me nothing worthwhile, but forcing me to use their stupid service if I want to play their games. And I’m going to vote with my wallet here. We’ll see what happens.
12/08/2011 at 23:38 rayne117 says:
“Why do you care if EA or Valve or Rupert Murdoch or CD Projekt or anyone else gets a cut or doesn’t?”
Uh, because I know my purchase decisions affect the future technology climate?
13/08/2011 at 01:18 skurmedel says:
rayne117 damn you to hell for your non-myopic thinking!
13/08/2011 at 02:05 dsi1 says:
“1. If enough people fail to buy this game because it requires Origin be installed, then the game is not going to have the longevity of previous titles.”
BF3 is already going to have negligible longevity due to the lack of modding tools or support for e-sports.
13/08/2011 at 08:33 drewski says:
You’re so right. No other game on the planet has men with guns shooting each other.
If you want to play Battlefield, suck it up. Just like if you want to buy a Lamborghini (or a Coke) you suck it up. Your choice is not to buy, or not to buy under whatever conditions are present. Whining about it on the internet is just boring.
“Uh, because I know my purchase decisions affect the future technology climate?”
If you don’t want one company making money over another, don’t support them.
13/08/2011 at 10:27 heretic says:
No.
Drewski your attitude about it is ridiculous. You’re saying people should just suck up any change that happens to the product if they want to play it.
Why can’t he whine about it on the internet? It’s a good place as any for companies to pick up feedback from potential customers and realise why they might not be selling.
If Battlefield ends up not doing as well as they hoped at least they won’t be scratching their heads.
If there is enough of an outrage on the internet about silly Origin then if EA are smart enough they would change their plans. This has happened to other game companies back tracking after very poor feedback.
Your solution is for people to shut up and never whine about it, like that’s going to change anything…
12/08/2011 at 15:57 Tei says:
I am giving Origin a EA a oportunity here. Hope is not wasted, but with a game like BF3 I doubt I will get screwed, I will probably put 100+ hours on the game, so it will end as very cheap enteirnament.. and very fun one :D
12/08/2011 at 15:57 Andy_Panthro says:
Steam Shark vs. Origin Octopus?
I think I’ll wait for the DVD release.
edit: photoshop delivered!
http://lockerz.com/s/128940963
12/08/2011 at 16:06 SMiD says:
Am I the only one that wants to see the cover art for this DVD?
12/08/2011 at 16:19 kalidanthepalidan says:
A steampunk shark battling the first octupus in existance sounds neato. Would watch.
12/08/2011 at 17:48 diebroken says:
Shhh! SyFy might hear you…
12/08/2011 at 18:39 Commisar says:
NICE
12/08/2011 at 15:57 Dawngreeter says:
I wonder why something like this isn’t subject to class-action lawsuit. If any other company required you to do anything with their product other than use it at your leisure, they’d be coughing up dough on the court floor.
Yes, sir, shoes size 42. No problem. You’ll have to call us on every 5th of the month, though, or we’ll send a man to take the shoes away from you.
12/08/2011 at 16:04 Robin says:
Eh? How do you propose suing a publisher for making their game use their own server backend?
12/08/2011 at 16:06 Teddy Leach says:
Remember how Steam started. I do. What EA are doing is perfectly legal.
12/08/2011 at 16:09 Dawngreeter says:
I know how Steam started and I do not pretend Origin is different in this regard. I merely wonder why this is legal. It is not obligatory server-side communication, it is obligation to use another product with the one you bought.
12/08/2011 at 16:19 Calneon says:
Ugh. This has to be explained so often. When you buy a game nowadays, you buy a SERVICE, not a product. EA/Valve/Activision/Blizzard are selling you the right to play their game on their own terms.
12/08/2011 at 16:24 Malk_Content says:
Happens all the time in spheres outside of gaming. Most fancy coffee makers require you to use their brands of coffee (or require you to save the plastic thingies it comes in then put your own coffee in, but that is similar to cracking a game.) Many cameras and other devices “require” you to use their proprietary storage devices of file formats even though they are perfectly capable of running others. It isn’t new and it isn’t isolated. It isn’t illegal because as a customer if you don’t like the restrictions your free to not buy it or find work around that will probably void your support with the original company
12/08/2011 at 16:42 0p8 says:
buy shoe means you own shoe.
buying game does not mean you own game.
12/08/2011 at 17:16 Vandelay says:
Would a better analogy not be buying a CD and requiring a CD player made by that record label in order to listen to it (replace the word CD with MP3 and CD player with MP3 player if you are a youngster)? I have absolutely no idea whether that would be illegal or not.
I’m pretty certain they would have no customers left though.
12/08/2011 at 17:22 R10T says:
Dawngreeter : While i think it is legal, what they are doing, I soooo understand you..
Calneon,0p8 : And THAT is exactly the problem I have with it..
Malk_Content: “If you don’t like the service, you don’t have to buy it” – I officially hate that argument, because it’s wrong on so many levels.. Just to throw in one of them: to force someone to use specific nonreasonable service, which is absolutely not needed in any way is just stupid and mean. It’s like saying “of course you can watch that movie in our cinema since you bought the tickets, but you have to run through a parking lot.. Twice”. It’s the same case as with Diablo 3, Ubi-DRM (where at least i get the basic reason,although i think it’s stupid reason as well).. If there would be benefits for using a specific service, i would be more than happy and maybe I would even use it.. If there is a NEED to do that without a real reason, i pass and although it is my choice, I believe I have 100% right to blame them..
12/08/2011 at 17:28 drewski says:
Exactly. The practical application of the way recorded media works is what stops record labels trying it, not the legality of it.
Witness Apple’s early attempts at controlling how people listen to digital media by having everything in their .aac format.
12/08/2011 at 15:58 phenom_x8 says:
WELL, looks like EA have answered it all by themselves regarding to the REAL reason behind the removal of their games from STEAM.
Do we need Valve to say its reason and make another BS PR statement about being closer to their customer ?? Nope, VALVE already knew before, that EA will tell the reason for them when the times come !
12/08/2011 at 15:58 ShineDog says:
My question is – What about the GFWL games on Steam? Thats a store, for a lot of games (not all) it handles the patching. Why is that allowed and not this?
Regardless, BF3 was fun enough in Alpha, with all it’s balance problems, that I’ll certainly not be letting Origin stop me.
12/08/2011 at 16:12 Aemony says:
Noticed how recently all new GFWL games got their DLCs buyable through Steam (i.e. Fable 3)? Yeah, that’s why…
The patching method itself is hardly the problem (and most GFWL games on Steam uses both systems available to them to ensure that Steam users benefits from their service while retaining the GFWL way to ensure that retail owners also gets the updates), but the matter of purchasing DLC is. To make it easier to their customers Valve now requires the DLCs to be purchaseable through the Steam Store. The only company having an issue with this is EA.
EA don’t want to share the income from the DLCs with Valve, so their latest games are removed from the store which requires players to sign-up, buy and install the DLC through another third-party store.
12/08/2011 at 16:19 Archonsod says:
Erm, if you’re buying EA DLC’s from EA’s store, that wouldn’t be third party …
12/08/2011 at 16:49 Zenicetus says:
Right, I think the older GFWL games were grandfathered in, like the DLC purchase and authorization for Fallout 3.
Also, I wouldn’t say that “The only company having an issue with this is EA.” You can’t buy the new Dragon Age 2 DLC through Steam either. Although, apparently you can buy it on the Bioware site and it will authorize inside Steam, which is some kind of in-between case. It will be fascinating to see what happens with Mass Effect 3 and its DLC on the Steam platform.
12/08/2011 at 17:17 DixieFlatline says:
I don’t think it’s a question of GFWL games being grandfathered in. Valve’s new policy is most likely “DLC must be available from Steam in addition to wherever the hell else you’re selling it.” Knowing EA’s track record, they probably want to be the only ones to sell DLC, period.
12/08/2011 at 17:30 drewski says:
EA are Bioware’s publisher, Zenicetus.
12/08/2011 at 17:34 Ravenholme says:
Uhm, Zeneticus – EA publish Dragon Age 2, so it is just EA.
12/08/2011 at 22:30 Zenicetus says:
(smacks self in head) Right, thanks for the correction. I think I must still be in denial that it’s not the same old Bioware I grew up with (sniff).
12/08/2011 at 15:59 Coins says:
I’m conflicted. On one hand, competition is good. However, EA doesn’t have a great track record of treating their costumers fair. Steam dominates, and they have to make everything perfectly right in Origin to have long-lasting success. What will happen with Origin when BF3 is forgotten?
Also, they didn’t start this off great, did they? Lying about their reason from pulling their games off Steam doesn’t exactly inspire confidence for the future.
12/08/2011 at 16:22 Calneon says:
How did they lie? AFAIK their reason was because they wanted control over how they sold DLC, it wasn’t all the details, but it wasn’t a lie.
12/08/2011 at 16:28 Spatula says:
lying by omission is still lying.
12/08/2011 at 16:53 Sassenach says:
The thing about monopolies is they work best for enforcing exploitative terms when they control necessities. Outside of hyperbole, I’m fairly certain computer games don’t qualify as necessities. For that reason I don’t really fear Steams potential to be awful in future very much, althought I recognise it’s plausibility, and it weighs little in comparison with my preference not to encourage Origin in it’s present state.
Speaking of which, does anyone have any thoughts on the plausibility of a unified format for the social network and content libraries so that alternative clients might access the same social networks and ownership information. Really, I just don’t want to run multiple versions of steam owned by various companies.
12/08/2011 at 16:54 PatrickSwayze says:
Mass Effect 3 happens.
That Star Wars game happens.
The Sims 4 Happens.
Plenty of big titles that will send people that way.
12/08/2011 at 16:00 McDan says:
Don’t know about anyone else, but I bloody hate those shoe shops! Not really, I don’t care about them, but this is a shame, I wanted to play it easily without getting any other thing, but it seems such days are long past.
12/08/2011 at 16:00 LegionUK says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cGAC6D7eng
12/08/2011 at 16:00 Milky1985 says:
Nadeo recently came out and explain there reasons in full for not releasing on steam, there was no bland statements, nothign overeaching and it all made sense. Most of all they were honest and said “yes we want to link everything to maniaplanet”. As such I am still likely to get trackmania 2 (and have started playing nations again……. that game hates me :P)
EA are still using bland overreaching statements, drip feeding information everyone guessed a while ago and are generally being silly (the next rumor from the alpha/beta players is that it does actually have to run in the background while the game is running, something all the supporters are saying origin is better than steam for because you don’t need it, personally i don’t give a crap about that, at least it sits in the process list not like blizzards behind the scene stuff).
Does this also mean you must activate online before you can play then if you must use origin?
Unfortantly even if i wanted BF3 for PC (currently I kinda do, but nto while this is going on , they can wait a bit to get my hard earned bash) i cannot currently get it, being a poor XP user with no DX10.
12/08/2011 at 16:02 Justin Keverne says:
Wasn’t going to buy it before, still not going to buy it. Wish EA would be a little more upfront about this, can we assume that Mass Effect 3 is going to require Origin too? What are the odds that BioWare Social Network is going to be integrated with Origin?
12/08/2011 at 16:15 acidtestportfolio says:
selling the dlc through origin would be a good thing in this case
attempting to buy dlc for mass effect 2 (a.k.a. commander shepard’s space adventure/sleep aid) was a complete and utter nightmare that had little benefit
12/08/2011 at 16:17 Justin Keverne says:
I get the impression we played two completely different games.
12/08/2011 at 16:54 Nalano says:
I bought ME2 DLC successfully through Bioware’s site, tho my Steam version of ME2 had some real issues with its EA Online logins to register them all. And I don’t blame Valve for that.
12/08/2011 at 17:05 Magnetude says:
Yep, it’s fair to assume all future EA games and many existing ones will be Origin exclusive. BF3 is the title they’re hoping to achieve a critical mass of users with, like HL2 for Steam.
I don’t like people who are sneaky.
12/08/2011 at 16:02 bjohndooh says:
do not want.
in fairness though I was already pretty much decided to pass on the PC version.
if anything i’ll just rent it for the 360 so I can give a whirl.
12/08/2011 at 16:02 ResonanceCascade says:
If I really wanted the game, this wouldn’t be a big deal. But since this is the kind of thing I’d generally only buy during a Steam sale, looks like I’ll be skipping this one. Oh well.
12/08/2011 at 16:04 Moni says:
Fair enough.
Well played EA.
12/08/2011 at 16:05 Rirse says:
No Steam, No Sale
12/08/2011 at 16:05 thepaleking says:
Oh gee now I can’t buy yet another “pseudo-realistic war in a modern setting” game. What a horrible curse this is.
12/08/2011 at 16:09 Lev Astov says:
This one has tanks, which is all anyone really needs in a game. Unless they gimp them horribly like they did in BFBC2, though, so yeah.
12/08/2011 at 16:50 Brise Bonbons says:
But Söldner has so many more tanks! And I’m only sort of joking, I got pretty giddy when I saw some of the bizarro old Russian vehicles in that game. I have a feeling BF3 will have your T-90s, your M1s, and if we’re really lucky, we’ll get a Challenger 2 for the team with the bad British accents.
If I’m going to be choosing between one or two tanks, then just give me Red Orchestra 2. Well, maybe I’m just much more excited for that game…
Dunno, I might be selling BF3 short, perhaps it will have a more substantial armored vehicle selection this time around. Either way, I’ve just never been a fan of the series, and haven’t seen anything out of BF3 to catch my interest. I’ll certainly consider it if gamers say good things when it comes out, though – while I think the whole Origin fiasco is stupid and a blatant marketing scheme, I don’t think it’s so onerous that I’m not willing to buy the game if it’s quality. Just doesn’t seem like that sort of deal breaker to me.
12/08/2011 at 16:05 Daiv says:
Given how fast EA like to turn off what other companies call “long term support”, I wonder what the chances of Origin’s servers being turned off are.
Or, if I put on my uber-cynical hat, will EA start deactivating my single-player games like they do with multiplayer servers?
12/08/2011 at 16:24 Calneon says:
EA Download Manager has always been around in some form or another. Origin is just another form of that.
12/08/2011 at 16:26 diamondmx says:
This is actually my biggest concern.
EA is quite willing to cripple 2 year old games – this would put even the single player features at risk of being considered too old to be worth allowing.
Valve has a whole different attitude to long term support – they seem to be embracing the long-tail sales.
12/08/2011 at 17:09 drewski says:
I can’t imagine them turning off something as simple as authentication servers, which is essentially all Origin will be for single player games.
12/08/2011 at 18:48 TormDK says:
Do you people never read the EULA’s of the software you purchase licenses for? Whatever gave you the idea that the product is yours to do with as you please?
12/08/2011 at 16:08 Kolchak says:
Well I am a big Steam Fanboy and well I’m not happy to hear that I’ll need a second DRM program in addition to Steam. But at the same time as long as it’s a decently coded program that doesn’t steal resources I’ll be ok.
I hope Origin can be more seamless though. Less like Steam and more like Battle.net in Starcraft 2.
12/08/2011 at 16:08 tstapp1026 says:
This one is easy. I’ll go into “thatguy” mode here and shout from the limb I’m on:
“F*ck EA!”
Meh… that didn’t feel as good as I hoped it would.
I’m done with EA and their DRM silliness, so there’s no way I’ll bother with this.
12/08/2011 at 16:09 CMaster says:
“This admission by EA probably goes some way to explaining why the game won’t appear on Steam, because it would basically entail two Steam-like systems being folded around the game,” – but we already have that with GfWL games on Steam. Hell, DOW2 in some kind of senseless madness actually requires both.
12/08/2011 at 16:09 Miodrag Kovachevic says:
I don’t see this as a bad thing. Valve did the same with their games, so it would be a tad hypocritical if I bashed this while having Steam in my tray bar.
That said, if they just wanted to move all of their stuff to Steam, why bother bashing it as some Draconian scheme which robs publishers and developers? (Well, obviously we all know why they’d do that, but that’s just not nice.)
12/08/2011 at 16:45 Zyrxil says:
We let Valve get away with it because they took a big risk in pioneering the digital distribution marketplace, and they already had a lot of Goodwill banked.
12/08/2011 at 17:11 drewski says:
“We” let Valve get away with it for the same reason “we” will let EA get away with it.
“We” really like videogames.
12/08/2011 at 18:50 TormDK says:
Agreed.
And do note that EA is into casual gaming, so no matter what we say or do Origins will become a huge success.
Which I have no problems with, the PC diehards have to learn the hard way that they are a minority.
12/08/2011 at 16:09 Deadpool46 says:
mmmmm not sure on this one. Was really angry at first, because I want all my games on Steam.
But the fact that EA is fighting over PC games is at least a positive. Better than what Ubisoft is doing, which is just treating PC customers with utter disdain.
Also, Origin isn’t offensive to use. Clearly way behind Steam, but if BF3 is awesome I can leave with using their service.
My only problem with EA is their track record. They’ve made some crazy decisions in the past (like with Spore’s DRM). Whereas Valve has always done good by it’s customers in my eyes.
I just hope BF3 is great. That’s the most important thing.
12/08/2011 at 16:11 akeso4 says:
What about the other rumors that the reason games were pulled from Steam is that E.A. wanted access to the contact emails of individuals who bought the game from Steam?
Word is that’s the restrictive ability to interact with consumers and yet no one is saying one way or another.
12/08/2011 at 16:12 Nalano says:
Was this ever in doubt?
12/08/2011 at 16:13 deejayem says:
DOWN WIV SHOESHOPS
12/08/2011 at 16:13 Lev Astov says:
I got to play around with Origin a bit, and while it’s got some nice polish, and maybe a few major selling point in terms of usability and flare (background loading of games), the fact that EA, a publisher, sells their own games on their own download service is a HUUUUUGE conflict of interest. They can’t even discount the games they sell because it would be undermining their distributors! Fail, EA, major fail.
12/08/2011 at 16:39 Gnarf says:
EA selling EA games is a huge conflict of interest compared to Valve selling EA games while also selling competing Valve games? Or just like in general huge?
12/08/2011 at 16:13 chiablo says:
I was in the alpha, and the game is almost indistinguishable from Bad Company 2. It’s less of a full release and more of an expansion or quick sequel.
Just like Counterstrike Source was the trial for Steam before Half Life 2 came out, I think the same thing is happening here. BF3 is the Origin trial before The Old Republic unleashes the Kraken!
12/08/2011 at 16:27 Lev Astov says:
What he said.
It was the similar neutering of the APC’s main gun that did it for me.
12/08/2011 at 16:14 Lifebleeder says:
After trying Origin with the BF3 Alpha, it’s a resource hog, it’s ugly, and I don’t want it. Before anyone goes “butomigosh it was just an alpha!” I’m talking strictly about Origin and how it interacts with the games, not the games themselves. I’ve always been a fan of the Battlefield franchise, shying away from the more popular Call of Duty franchise, but when this news hit on the 9th, the next day I my pre-order switched.
12/08/2011 at 16:32 JayTee says:
I’m confused as to what Origin actually did for me in the alpha. The webbased portal thing that you played the game through seemed to do everything, including patching, Origin just sat there and got in the way.
12/08/2011 at 16:15 zeroskill says:
I wasnt interested in this since they announced they wont release mod-tool and want to milk their fanbase with payed DLC. This dosnt come as a surprise to me. It will make milking so much easier for them. Im just a bit sad DICE had to agree to the EA way. They used to be a great developer with a strong modding community. Well played EA indeed.
12/08/2011 at 16:17 I4C says:
I don’t see anything wrong with this.
I need to have steam in order to play Portal 2.
I need origin in order to play BF3.
In reality i am happy with companies trying to bring competition, instead of Valve monopolizing and shaping the pc, valve have already done way too much damage to the PC, they are like the M$ of operating systems, except they use $team.
I will just give some examples, before valve fanboys start foaming:
1They are forcing people to use their terrible steam drm for games that aren’t even theirs like Just cause 2 and others
even if u buy them at greenmangaming,gamersgate etc
2All the games sold on their store, you have to put up with the draconian steam drm if u want to play them.
3They have brainwashed a lot of people into the “all the games i buy need to be on steam”
4As a monopoly they decline great games, just cause they sell bad on XBLIG, or really awful reasons, making those games much less viable in the pc market, hence hurting us, this is a result of step 3
Steam are really hurting the pc, before steam came along pc was the main platform and now it is what it is…. sad times.
12/08/2011 at 16:19 Nalano says:
Because I don’t want GfWL, Steam, Origin, Social Club, BattleNet 2.0 and god knows how many other platforms constantly clogging up my computer phoning home.
You can buy from Fry’s and you can buy from Best Buy, but they don’t all install kiosks in your foyer. It’d get crowded after a while.
12/08/2011 at 16:25 Ultra-Humanite says:
“Steam are really hurting the pc, before steam came along pc was the main platform and now it is what it is…. sad times.”
Are you insane or just really stupid? The PC was already not the main platform when Steam came out and they have only HELPED the PC market.
12/08/2011 at 16:44 Advanced Assault Hippo says:
Yes Nalano, but why should EA just give up that digital market without a fight? Why should they just accept the situation as it is and carry on giving away a chunk of their own profit to Valve for every digital sale?
Why shouldn’t they seek to maximise their profits? Makes sense really.
In all these threads on RPS over the last couple of months, I haven’t seen a single argument for why EA shouldn’t do this. All I’ve heard is ‘but…I want to have all my games in a nice Steam list by itself!’ ‘Even if it means these games’ publishers have to give away a chunk of their profits to Valve all the time!’ ‘I don’t care, I just want everything on Steam…because….just BECAUSE!’
Sorry, but that’s a completely farcical argument with no basis in reality.
12/08/2011 at 17:24 Nalano says:
“I haven’t seen a single argument for why EA shouldn’t do this.”
It’s hard to read with your eyes closed.
But really, I don’t like the trend in the industry overall. I’d rather they divorced the service backend from the game itself. Package deals like this are, of course, monopoly-makers. Just because Valve did it doesn’t make it right.
12/08/2011 at 17:45 Advanced Assault Hippo says:
“It’s hard to read with your eyes closed”
Either that or I actually haven’t seen a proper argument against it. But please provide me with one if you think I’ve missed something.
Apart from the whole convenience/preference thing. Which is rather academic in this new digital age of gaming and not a reason for EA to desist.
12/08/2011 at 22:16 Harkkum says:
@Semi-aggressive Hippo
I recall this was an argument you did raise already earlier on. For a small market area like that of Finland, the more the companies are creating exclusive services on digital distribution the more I am effectively forced to pay from my games. I don’t have a chance to go to a multitude of different gaming stores that are competing with prices of popular games.
Certainly, I can still buy my boxed games from various internet services and reap the harvest of actual competition that exists abroad. However, I have no actual interest to buy boxed games and would much prefer digital distribution for environmental reasons alone. Hence, the fact that EA, Valve and Blizzard have created their own monopolies of digital distribution will effectively limit my chances of finding those special offers via digital distribution services.
After all, these monopolies also dictate prices across the field. I cannot find anyone from the internet to sell these games for a lower price, i.e., there is no competition. We can see that e.g. the price of FIFA football games or Starcraft 2 keeps on premium rate for ages and there is no competition. This is at least what I do oppose on digital distribution monopolies, regardless of whom creates such barriers. Hence, it is fairly irrelevant if this is what Valve has done or does as I do despise their monopoly in a similar fashion.
12/08/2011 at 16:18 FleabagF7 says:
I trust Valve; I don’t trust EA. That’s why Steam is ok and Origin is not. I won’t be buying BF3 nor will I buy any other Origin exclusive product and I’m pretty disgusted this is the way things are going for the industry.
12/08/2011 at 17:14 drewski says:
I love the logic. You’re so disgusted with the way the industry is going that you refuse to patronise any service other than the one which STARTED THE WHOLE THING.
12/08/2011 at 17:42 zeroskill says:
People have lerned to trust Valve in what they do because they offer a top notch service, treat their customers well and listen to the community. They deliver on the games front every single time and dont forget how important modding is to the PC. On the other hand, EA has earned alot of mistrust in the PC gaming community, at least the players that are around long enough to remember how many great studios EA destroyed, how they where catering towards the console market for ages and delivering half-arsed console port to the PC. They also restrict traditional PC developers from releasing modding tools, an integral aspect of the longevity of a game on the PC. They are doing the same thing now to DICE.
12/08/2011 at 18:00 Cyampagn says:
Well, one less fanboy polluting the servers from which is going to be another great game by DICE.
You miss it.
12/08/2011 at 16:19 PoulWrist says:
WHO CARES ? EXCEPT INANE FANBOYS?
You sucked all the shit from steam, and now you want to hate EA for doing it? Why? Hypocrisy rules! “but steam is good” yes, but remember when the fucking thing gave you BSODs, hogged all your fucking RAM, crashed, used up loads of system resources for no reason, was REQUIRED for games!!!!!! And in general was a fucking pain?
You sucked that up in order to enjoy a different, good product. But now you won’t suck this shit up? Well, then stop fucking bitching, your righteous cause is not righteous, and you only come off as a whiny little bitch.
12/08/2011 at 16:23 acidtestportfolio says:
whoah, don’t cut yourself on that edge denis leary
12/08/2011 at 16:25 zeroskill says:
I never knew RPS readers where so eloquent.
12/08/2011 at 16:45 Nalano says:
ANGER RAGE
12/08/2011 at 16:49 Whosi says:
“…and you only come off as a whiny little bitch.”
Wow, you hit the nail on the head…just read what this guy just wrote:
“WHO CARES ? EXCEPT INANE FANBOYS?
You sucked all the shit from steam, and now you want to hate EA for doing it? Why? Hypocrisy rules! “but steam is good” yes, but remember when the fucking thing gave you BSODs, hogged all your fucking RAM, crashed, used up loads of system resources for no reason, was REQUIRED for games!!!!!! And in general was a fucking pain?
You sucked that up in order to enjoy a different, good product. But now you won’t suck this shit up? Well, then stop fucking bitching, your righteous cause is not righteous…”
You, sir, must be psychic.
12/08/2011 at 17:14 Magnetude says:
FUCK
13/08/2011 at 01:16 Nick says:
I don’t remember when any of those things happened, as they never happened to me. I do remember it being a pita to download and update itself though, back on dialup.
I also remember EA downloader being the biggest piece of shit ever.
12/08/2011 at 16:21 Lord Byte says:
Won’t buy it. I’ve had two before (Impulse and Steam) and basically ignored Impulse, it was just there to annoy and waste resources, gog.com now fills that hole (NO CLIENT YAJ!), so between Steam and Gog I’ll have enough :)
12/08/2011 at 16:21 Was Neurotic says:
Origin’s fine, it’s absolutely no problem at all. If you have any kind of EA login/pw then you’re already set. You don’t even need to have Origin running to play a game associated with it, but if you do you get access to the whole Steam-style in-game UI. Which is totally optional. Jesus Christ people, it’s not like you have to plug your first born child into the phone socket to play BF3.
12/08/2011 at 16:37 acidtestportfolio says:
but plugging a child into the phone socket is what the best babysitters do
12/08/2011 at 17:50 Aemony says:
Not according to the beta/alpha testers. It sounds as if running Origin in the background will be mandatory to be able to play BF3, similar to what you’re forced to do with Steam.
I’m all for having Origin as a secondary run-download-remove download client for my retail bought game, but I’m not interesting in having a secondary Steam running on my system. Steam is, by far, enough.
12/08/2011 at 16:21 lijenstina says:
The Origin of the Feces: I Know You’re F*cking Someone Else
Was a good song by Type O Negative .
12/08/2011 at 16:22 Ultra-Humanite says:
To be honest, I was leaning towards Modern Warfare 3 anyway. Thanks for making my decision easy, EA!
12/08/2011 at 16:24 markcocjin says:
Dear Jim Rossignol,
A few months ago, a bunch of boring men in boring suits sat down on a meeting to discuss the fall of their brick and mortar business of selling games. Consoles are taken over by more powerful portables and the lie that PC was dying is slowly losing its effect on the millions upon millions of customers.
“I will call up Gabe,” Riticello says taking out his phone, “let us test these waters by scheduling an EA week on their Steam thing.”
The week passed and they stared at the Steam metrics go crazy like a continuous earthquake made up of aftershocks that never ended. Mr. Riticello sank down to his seat made of a hundred neckbeard foreskins donated after circumcision.
“It is done then… Newell will never know what hit him. Gather up our best developers. I’m sure we’ve softened them up with our friendship program. They’re nothing without us even with their cute little titles. They are in no position to deny us.”
Another suit spoke up concerned. “What of the customers sir? We are going to meet some resistance.”
“Of course not. This industry has as short attention span as they do memory. We will give out a press release before Valve could react. Pre-emptive strike the American way. They will run to our side as they remember the recent games they loved us for. Inform our PR consultants that we’ll need people on the threads. Let us cash in thisssssssssss…. good favor we’ve been harvesting.”
In Valve offices, Gabe gets a call. After a brief moment, he looks at the game prototypes he has yet to review on his screen.
“Do what you have to do. We’ll focus on getting out the content we’ve been working on. No comments are necessary. We have more important things to worry about.”
12/08/2011 at 16:27 zeroskill says:
Good read.
12/08/2011 at 16:47 Nalano says:
Neckbeard foreskins.
12/08/2011 at 16:48 phenom_x8 says:
marckcockjin, great as always!
Did you know that I always quoting your early comments at RPS towards this steam vs origin things in my comment at the other game sites and forum?? Just dont sue me coz of that! :)
12/08/2011 at 16:48 briktal says:
Valve doesn’t work on any content, immersion ruined.
12/08/2011 at 17:30 0p8 says:
me likey
12/08/2011 at 16:24 magnus says:
So if this situation continues and other publishers develop their own Steam/Origin type client ,how long is it going to be until you need to have at least 5 different clients installed to download anything?
12/08/2011 at 16:43 ArtVandelay says:
Not long. I already have Steam, Origin, Games for Windows Marketplace and GoG download applications on my PC. For the most part they all work fine (haven’t had any crashes/bugs with any) and are small enough programs. The strange part is only one require that I launch it first in order to play a game.
12/08/2011 at 16:25 Spork says:
I’ve no problem with this, so long as it works. I considered buying it from Origin until I saw they were charging £10 more than Amazon.
Not sure how that works when they’re only adding a few bits of dlc.
12/08/2011 at 16:26 mehteh says:
It already plays like BC3 more than a true BF2 successor so Origin as a requirement makes this a solid case for to never buy it.
12/08/2011 at 16:43 MisterT says:
high damage an suppression make a huge differenct.
and the G3 with ACOG was exaclty like a BAUR H-AR from 2142, aka the balanced, future version of BF2.
12/08/2011 at 16:34 patricij says:
What a shame…
12/08/2011 at 16:36 kikito says:
I bet the pirate version doesn’t require origin
12/08/2011 at 16:40 ArtVandelay says:
I bet the pirate version doesn’t allow you to play online, but that’s okay since Battlefield has always been about their strong single player campaigns.
12/08/2011 at 22:27 Harkkum says:
This pirate-logic is the logic of sillyness. The option is to buy or not to buy instead of to buy or to pirate. Ferrari comes with Pirelli tires! I betcha they will moan and bitch when I steal their Ferrari and run it with Bridgestone!
12/08/2011 at 16:39 ArtVandelay says:
I used Origin to register the copy BFBC2 that I bought on Steam and am very pleased with it. Now I don’t have to launch Steam or Origin to play the game. It really works nicely. I guess if I wanted to I could launch Steam separately before BFBC2 but I see no advantage in doing this.
As long as the BF3 is being sold in various retail distributors and download services I have no issues with this.
12/08/2011 at 16:39 Koozer says:
I’m not too bothered about requiring Origin, I’ve lived through worse – I’m looking at YOU Games for Windows Live. I’ll just never buy anything directly from their overpriced store, and I hope the majority do the same.
12/08/2011 at 16:39 sassy says:
Being a multiplayer game, I don’t mind a client taking care of a lot of the netcode and statistics management. In this day and age though if you need this then just make a nice little library to be used across your games library so it can be used on the variety of different platforms (such as steam, GFWL, green man gaming, impulse and any of the other stores that uses a client). This just reeks of a marketing move to encroach on steams market.
12/08/2011 at 16:39 jezcentral says:
I can’t see any problem with EA doing this. Since Steam was initially launched in the same way, I would feel a hypocrite for criticising EA. It will be good to see what Steam do in return, now they have competition.
Hopefully, the fact that Origin is also running a mobile version will see Valve finally come out with a Steam app (if only for the Steam Community, Store and forums). We could do with parental controls, too, so children can play Toki Tori (a bit too hardcore, though) and not see that Daddy has been playing 200 hours of Duke Nukem Forever.
And equally hopefully, EA will realise that closing down Origin games will do irreperable harm to their Origin store, and they’ll not do it.
12/08/2011 at 16:45 sassy says:
umm that parental control thing ain’t happening. You are buying a single license and you aren’t meant to be sharing your steam account, so in theory your scenario shouldn’t ever happen (In theory no one should have ever played DNF for that long either). Really I couldn’t care less and have shared my account with people I’m living with or dating plenty of times. More likely to generate sales then anything.
12/08/2011 at 17:04 jezcentral says:
Good point, but I was thinking of having it more like a password-protected Library List. I’m sure that would be legally acceptable.
N.B. I’d just like to make clear that I DON’T own Duke Nukem Forever. I was just using it as an example! :)
12/08/2011 at 16:47 Rider on the Storm says:
I think some idiots on here forget that Valve have been doing the same with Steam for years. Steam didn’t just become like it is today instantly, to be frank it was a bit shite to begin with and Valve also forced Steam upon anyone who wanted to play their games or has everyone magically forgotten about that?
Any EA game i buy via retail, i register that tile via Origin, therefore i’ve got both digital and physical copies. This news doesn’t bother me in the slightest.
The more competition Valve gets the better as it’s not good for the consumer having only one company dominate a particular market.
12/08/2011 at 17:03 vodkarn says:
I think a lot of people remember (I sure as hell do), but the difference is most of us waited for steam to improve. With Origin, we already know the massive problems it will have, so why would we use that instead of a more tried and tested platform?
12/08/2011 at 17:44 0p8 says:
i remember being excited to play the sequel to my most favourite game (half life), only to be startled by this steam thingy and not being allowed to just play the damn game i had just bought!!!!
how can anyone forget that.
12/08/2011 at 18:07 Cyampagn says:
@vodkarn how come you already know the ‘massive problems it will have’?
Amusing. It was tuned by a completely different dev team, and I know it, so don’t ask.
12/08/2011 at 16:48 wintermute says:
I haz a thought on dis.
Recently, I bought Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Vietnam expansion from Origin. Things I learned:
1. Even though I made an EA account and downloaded Origin two years ago to buy Burnout Paradise, their “system upgrades” mean that it does not show as purchased. I have called support over this, and a helpful robot informed me no purchases are visible so I must be lying. Goodbye cash, goodbye game.
2. Origin automatically localizes by your IP and it’s bugged so every restart resets manual changes. Much worse, any game you install will automatically come in the language Origin is in. If you are not in an english speaking territory and want the game to be in english – bad luck. Of course you won’t know about this issue until you start the game, after a few hours of downloading.
I found this bug to be around 2 years old via googling, and nothing has been done since then. Solution was to cancel Origin order and buy a physical box from a shop, then download an english release torrent and use boxed CD-Key – good times.
3. Once started, game told me CD-Key was in use. Two hours on chat to support sorted it out. (Support was actually very helpful, if very robotic)
4. Vietnam was purchased on Origin via Paypal. CD-Key email came after 3 days after another one hour on chat with support.
Overall, a pleasant evening with a new game turned into a 4 day saga of cursing. Based on this experience, I think even thought Origin may find mass adoption because, well, it’s Battlefield 3, in the end the only loser is us the players.
**** EA
12/08/2011 at 18:56 TormDK says:
Here’s a little tip for you.
The language you view the EULA in, is the language you get in game. (If available)
12/08/2011 at 16:50 Advanced Assault Hippo says:
Yep, nothing whatsoever wrong with this. It’s a publisher releasing a game on their own distribution platform. Good luck to them. It’s the logical business model for someone the size of EA.
And hopefully more publishers will follow suit. A few of the more militant Steam supporters will moan for a little while, but they’ll get used to things – 99.9% of those who really want to play a non-Steam EA game will use Origin if they have to.
And as time goes by, no doubt Origin will get better.
12/08/2011 at 18:43 Commisar says:
hit the nail on the head there. The true battlefield fans(like me) will get this day one no matter what. Having played the Alpha/use origin to get BF2142, i can say that i was pleasantly surprised by how good origin was. Plus I can turn off Origin whenever I want on my taskbar and I can restart it in seconds :) Plus it doesn’t whine about updates constantly. to all of those people saying ‘Well if it requires origin to validate the install, I’m not going to buy it” then ok, I’ll have fun without you. Plus, that guy’s comment was so vague, I say wait until gamescon for more verification.
12/08/2011 at 16:56 drewski says:
As long as Origin has an Offline mode somewhere, I don’t care.
12/08/2011 at 18:45 Commisar says:
heck, I’ll give you one better. You can COMPLETELY Uninstall Origin once your game is DLed and installed. Plus, if you don’t do that, yo can shut down origin completely when you’re not using it and restart it in seconds with no hassle.
13/08/2011 at 08:40 drewski says:
Long may it continue…but I’m not counting on it, y’know?
12/08/2011 at 16:58 ZenArcade says:
Big publishers ruling out second hand sales via use of huge clunky DRM software. Oh wait I meant “delivery systems.” They’re just being greedy. It’s a publisher choice, not a developer choice. Stuff like this always is. Developers are just happy to have their game sell well, they’re not interested in “maximizing sales” or stamping out second hand purchases.
I don’t mind Steam doing it so much as they usually make it worth it with untold amounts of sales, cloud stuff, stats, etc etc. But how do I know Origin won’t be just another programme that sits in my tray?
12/08/2011 at 17:02 drewski says:
You don’t, but then you never had any guarantee Steam would be anything other than an obnoxious system hog when Half Life 2 came out. And, to be fair, for a long time it…kinda was.
If you’ll put up with Steam, it’s just flat out hypocrisy to get pissy about Origin in theory. Criticising the implementation is, of course, another matter, but if you’re happy to accept Valve’s always on DRM, accepting EA’s version really shouldn’t be a problem.
12/08/2011 at 17:49 Ravenholme says:
Except Drewski, Steam has teethed and grown up, and become a mature and stable system. I don’t want to go through the same shit with yet another system which has shown itself to be WORSE than steam was in infancy. Couple that with the fact that EA have none of the helpful customer attitude that Valve have (My dealings with customer support for valve over the past few years, including retrieving an account that was hacked on christmas day by the day after boxing day, have been breezy and friendly. EADM/Origin, attempting to get a CD-Key for a game I had bought which said it was in use took me all of a week being batted between bots) and frankly my reaction to this is somewhere between “Meh” and “Fuck that shit.”
I just cancelled my retail BF3 pre-order, because if it’s going to have Origin included as well, when it has no reason to, they can forget that.
12/08/2011 at 18:59 TormDK says:
Funny, I can say the same about EA support vs Steam support.
EA support is quick to respond and eager to help, not to mention that I can get it in my native language if I so wanted (Which can be a huge selling point for alot of casual players in the future). Steam support takes its time and doesn’t always seem to bother.
12/08/2011 at 23:21 Ravenholme says:
Well, my experience with steam support has been excellent. I can honestly say that I would find no one around to provide support on boxing day if it were EA. Valve I had a prompt response in which they asked to prove my ownership of the account, I did so, and I was playing games again by the early hours of the morning of the 27th.
13/08/2011 at 08:43 drewski says:
@ Ravenholme – yes, it has. Why don’t EA get the chance to grow Origin up? Why do people seem to think that Valve are the only company in the world who are allowed to have ever had teething problems with a service? Why, in short, is it OK for Valve to release a bugridden system hogging mess of a DRM system, take five years to fix it, yet if EA so much as dares create their own DRM system, it’s the end of the universe?
The only difference between Origin and Steam is five years of polish. If EA can’t get Origin right, by all means don’t use it. Denying them even the chance to try it on the basis that Valve already did it is, well, stupid. More competition is always a good thing.
Origin may be practically different, but it’s philosophically the same. There’s no reason EA can’t have their own service.
12/08/2011 at 16:59 vodkarn says:
To be as brief as possible:
I’ve had nothing but problems with EA’s servers. Mass Effect 2 has turned me off of EA ‘online’ required games entirely (Bad Company 2 as well, though not nearly as severely).
Thusly: Instead of Battlefield 3 convincing me to try Origin, Origin has convinced me to not buy Battlefield 3, which will be the first Battlefield game (on PC) I haven’t bought.
PS. This has nothing to do with it being on steam – I don’t care about that. It is simply the repeatedly-beaten-into-me lessons learned from using EA products.
12/08/2011 at 18:46 Commisar says:
good Christ, YOU can get it from ALOT of other sources, plus that damn comment was so vague, I’m not sure what he meant. it could just be a ONE TIME install validation. But, if means that much to you, i will have all the fun you won’t be having in BF3 :) lus, i used Origin 4 days ago to get BF2142 and it was hassle free.
12/08/2011 at 16:59 Glow says:
can someone just develop a programme that allows Steam, Origin, Capsule and whatever else is out there to co-exist as one…..I really dont want to have to remember where I bought a game before I play it
12/08/2011 at 17:09 jezcentral says:
“Games” > “Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library” is your friend. :)
12/08/2011 at 17:01 wintermute says:
Once every major and major-ish publisher has their own distribution platform, users’ computers are filled with more junk software than games and booting windows will result in clicking through thirty pages of adverts, my Game Download Service Manager Meta-Manager will launch.
It will be a convenient place to store all your game managers such as Origin, Steam, Impulse etc. Browse one unified game and advert library! Launch any game with only five clicks! Each in-game overlay comes with a meta-overlay with many useless features! Gather all your game manager friends into one list with cross-shard chat!
$$$$$$$$$$$
12/08/2011 at 17:04 Zarunil says:
Steam was a steaming pile of poo when it first crawled out of it’s hole years ago. Today’s version does not compare. Today’s Steam is great, and I use it every day.
I’m sure Origin will be terrible at first. Terrible. However, I am hopeful EA will polish and work on it until, years from now, it will be an awesome, user-friendly service with reasonable pricing. Well, maybe not reasonable pricing. That would probably be hoping too much, this is EA after all. It will likely never be cheaper to buy games on Origin compared to buying at retail. All this expensive distribution of bits across huge oceans and all that.
I wish them luck, but I won’t be taking part in it.
12/08/2011 at 18:02 thegooseking says:
The Origin software is not bad (and certainly not nearly as bad as Steam was initially). EA needs to work on the service side of things, though. If they’re going down the road of insisting that their games are a service and not a product, then they need to compete as a service. They can’t really have their cake and eat it.
12/08/2011 at 17:05 Eightball says:
No mod support means I had lost a lot of enthusiasm anyway, so I guess I don’t care anymore.
Back to TF2 and Paradox games!
12/08/2011 at 18:48 Commisar says:
Good, i’ll be having fun with BF3 without you. PLus, in regard to the mod tools, check out THIS http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/battlefield-bad-company-2-pc/1350772-so-how-about-modtools.html
12/08/2011 at 17:06 GenBanks says:
It seems these different download services are becoming the equivalent of the console world but within the PC. Platform exclusives and all.
12/08/2011 at 17:11 jezcentral says:
Wow. I can’t even guess at what reasoning you used to think that.
13/08/2011 at 12:51 GenBanks says:
huh?
12/08/2011 at 17:10 dtskull says:
Origin just came too later for me. I’ve bought 120+ games on steam the last thing I want is to spread out my games though different platforms. Besides if ether company were to go under I know Valve would do the right thing to ensure their customers can play the games they bought. I just don’t think EA would even care…
Besides, look at their business practices! All the lies about the game not coming to steam, blaming valve for it. Origin was the plan from the beginning!
12/08/2011 at 17:18 drewski says:
I honestly don’t understand this attitude at all.
I’d rather have 121 awesome games on two “platforms” than 120 awesome games on one. It’s not like installing Origin costs you anything about from a tiny fragment of hard disk space and a little bit of download.
12/08/2011 at 23:25 dtskull says:
It is the general lack of trust towards EA. I have been burned before more than a few times by them. Their business practices are just terrible IMO. Yes I do try to keep all my games in the same platform, I mean why not? Valve has been nothing but fantastic to me, from support to the general quality of their services. The last time I dealt with EA their sales department assured me that NFS-HP (the new one) was in no way coming to steam. I bit the bullet and bought it retail. literally 48 hours later the game was on steam, and I missed out on playing it with my steam friends. Only because I decided to believe EA. Let’s be really honest here. EA does not give a mouse shit bout PC gamers! they can’t wait for the medium to die so can quit supporting it. They have finally realized their stupidity and are trying to follow on the steps of the guys that never left us to die (Valve)… I am supper glad that PC gaming is gaining ground again, but trust me EA had nothing to do with it.
13/08/2011 at 08:49 drewski says:
Lack of trust is a much better argument for not being interested in Origin than disliking platform diversity.
12/08/2011 at 17:14 Alfius says:
There are no words to describe my hatred of EA
12/08/2011 at 19:30 The Sentinel says:
And no middle finger big enough.
12/08/2011 at 17:19 The Hammer says:
Two things about this make me queasy:
1) The thought of another distribution platform cluttering up my system tray.
2) The staggering amount of smileys that public rep uses, in contexts where they are not appropriate.
2 more than 1, admittedly.
12/08/2011 at 17:51 Ravenholme says:
And something I’ve discovered since participating in the BF3 Alpha – There is no obvious way to disable Origin launching on system start up.
12/08/2011 at 20:30 Starky says:
msconfig
Every gamer should know that simple command.
12/08/2011 at 23:23 Ravenholme says:
Indeed, but it should be a part of the service. It certainly is in Steam. Options, Interface, untick ‘Run steam on startup.’ – Done. Time elapsed – 5 seconds (if that), and never have to worry about it again. And what about people who do not know that command, the hordes of casual-ish gamers who don’t really know computers?
13/08/2011 at 08:51 drewski says:
That bugs the bejesus out of me, too.
12/08/2011 at 17:19 Ham Solo says:
And that’s why it won’t be available via Steam. I don’t like having to run a different program for every game.
12/08/2011 at 17:21 Tasloi says:
Fair enough, their choice. Just like it’s my choice to stay clear of BF3, cya EA.
12/08/2011 at 17:22 simonh says:
FUCK!
12/08/2011 at 17:22 televizor says:
That settles it then, I’m getting this on the PS3
12/08/2011 at 17:23 Rider on the Storm says:
Blah, Blah, Blah…every cunt here will still buy it, regardless of Origin. Those who say otherwise are just kidding themselves on.
12/08/2011 at 17:32 drewski says:
I won’t, but then I don’t really like modern warfare style shooters.
12/08/2011 at 18:08 Ravenholme says:
I just cancelled my pre-order, actually. The only game that will make me use Origin is ME3. Maybe, and they’ll both be uninstalled when I’ve finished playing it.
12/08/2011 at 18:49 Commisar says:
yeah, ain’t that the truth, I can’t WAIT to see the hypocrisy here on RPS when BF3 releases
12/08/2011 at 19:01 Brise Bonbons says:
I’ve never bought a Battlefield game yet, but I guess the psychic overlords at EA will use their mind control beams to make me buy this one. Or perhaps I will just feel compelled due to overwhelming peer pressure?
Well, that has never been the case for a CoD game, so I dunno why it would start now.
It’s not like we’re short of good alternatives in the manshoot field at the moment, either. By the time I’ve bought SS3:BFE and Red Orchestra 2, I doubt I’ll have any money left over to even think about BF3. And I don’t feel like I’ll be missing much, honestly…
12/08/2011 at 19:33 The Sentinel says:
I’ve never played a Battlefield game. Am I still a cunt who will buy it, O prescient Knowers of What Is To Be? Is there hypocrisy in my future, like there is unbelievable arrogance in my present?
12/08/2011 at 22:46 Harkkum says:
I don’t play any shooters so I can fairly well say I won’t buy it, but that has nothing to do with this decision.
12/08/2011 at 17:25 Rider on the Storm says:
Steam Zombies, continue to be Steam Zombies.
12/08/2011 at 17:27 Slade says:
Please, EA, don’t put Origin on Mass Effect 3.
12/08/2011 at 17:28 GHudston says:
My predicition: The vast majority of people will have origin installed solely for this game (and/or further EA games that require it), grumble everytime they have to load it up just to play and continue to buy everything else on Steam as they have been doing for years now.
To me, this is just EA making their products fractionally more irritating to use and nothing more.
12/08/2011 at 17:40 Zarunil says:
I can definitely see this happening with a lot of people.
12/08/2011 at 18:51 Commisar says:
Hit the nail right on the head, bravo
12/08/2011 at 17:30 Freud says:
Origin – We create worlds of hassle for you.
12/08/2011 at 17:38 Bostec says:
Another game down the pan, My chirstmas list to myself is getting ever so slighty shorter. I can’t take anymore logins or sign ups. I forget half of my passwords and half of my usernames not to mention all the programs I run in the background. They will probably merge into some super code, Delete all my save game files, send all my porn to the girlfriends e-mail account, electrocute me through the mouse and set the house on fire via electric cooker. Not good.
12/08/2011 at 18:53 Commisar says:
WAH WAH WAH.. I’ll be having fun without you then, plus your origin account is the same thing as your EA account, and as for the passwords, use paper and a pen
12/08/2011 at 19:35 The Sentinel says:
What rattled your cage today, Commisar?
12/08/2011 at 20:32 Starky says:
He’s clearly a 12 year old troll (or at least mentally 12) – just ignore him. RPS doesn’t need his type.
12/08/2011 at 17:54 Aemony says:
BF3 vs. CoD:MW3 just became Origin vs. Steam… And Steam wins everytime.
Thanks for making my choice easy, EA. I sure love that about you.
12/08/2011 at 17:57 SteveHatesYou says:
Steering clear of this. Not out of loyalty to Valve/Steam – I think the competition is a good thing – but because I have no faith in EA’s ability to manage something like this competently.
12/08/2011 at 17:58 AMonkey says:
*sigh* I don’t know whether I want to buy this or not then. On the one hand I really want a competitive game to keep me occupied (games in the past included TF2, LoL, CoD4, BF:BC2 and CS 1.6) but I don’t want to support Origin or EA.
12/08/2011 at 18:08 0p8 says:
wow!
i can see the levels of hysteria here will be going into nut job land any time soon.
12/08/2011 at 18:54 Commisar says:
too late, they already have
12/08/2011 at 18:28 Ryz says:
Honestly, this wouldn’t be a problem if Origin wasn’t totally half-baked and feature incomplete. This isn’t a Half Life 2/Steam situation because while Steam was a bit…*ungood* (to put it lightly)…when it launched it had all the features it needed to do so.
I did not have to launch Steam, “launch” Half Life 2 which in reality launched my web browser, install two browser plugins, and then actually launch Half Life 2 (while Steam pops to the forefront and displays ads while HL2 launches).
This is not a seamless integration in any way, shape, or form.
BF3 doesn’t have an in-game server browser, friends list, or stats. Everything has been punted to the web browser application (again, two browser plugins are *required*) while Origin sits in the background doing nothing and contributing nothing. Want to change servers? Exit the game, go back to the browser, pick a new server, relaunch the game.
Origin will also insist on being the focus while BF3 is actually launching in order to display ads. I looked through the terrible options trying to find an option to disable them, failed, and opted to drag the Origin window off my desktop. It’s not like it was being used for anything anyway.
it doesn’t handle patching, it doesn’t have any kind of file verification, you can’t even change your display name (your account name = your soldier name, and you only get one soldier) or pick a custom avatar (EA is happy to provide stock images from their games, though!).
It’s a terrible experience and, in my opinion, BF3 isn’t good enough to make me willing to put up with this half client/half web browser implementation. It made me feel like they had regressed back to the GameSpy Arcade days of old rather than at least coming close to a Steam-like integration for their titles. I’ll just keep playing BC2/Vietnam which has a functional in-game server browser, thanks.
And that’s the problem. Not that Origin is being used as a multiplayer framework and thus totally tied into the game, but that it isn’t used at all and is actively hampering the game due to all the standard features we had in BC2 have been ripped out into the Battle Log Origin Web Browser Experience while Origin does nothing except spam ads on game launch.
12/08/2011 at 20:22 Brise Bonbons says:
Not to direct any specific mistrust at you, Ryz, but this is a much more negative view of Origin than I’ve seen expressed anywhere else. That said, if things are actually this bad at launch, it’ll be a real laugh, but somehow I doubt it will be that bad by the time it goes live.
Honestly as a business move I don’t think there’s anything especially onerous in this whole affair – more competition is good for everyone, though obviously it might result in some loss of choice for the consumer in the short term.
But the devil will be in the details, not the big picture stuff – EA is free to do what they want with their games on the business end, but if the implementation is terrible, then no amount of “positive competition” or free market sentiment will save them from the backlash.
Like D3, I’m sure the games will sell well. And for those of us who don’t want to support the model, there are plenty of other games to give our financial support to.
12/08/2011 at 20:46 Ryz says:
http://bf3blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/bf3-alpha-screenshot-5.jpg
http://www.battlefield3online.com/battlefield-3-general-discussion/653-battlefield-3-battlelog.html
That is an exact screenshot of the web browser based server browser and a link that talks a bit about the Battle Log. You can look for more information about it if you’d like, there’s several other Alpha players discussing it over at Bluesnews or Penny Arcade or, uh, anywhere really, as well. It’s hardly a well kept secret.
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/140615/battlefield-3-its-raining-leaks/p38
Just as an example.
Some things (one soldier per account, etc) could certainly change between Alpha and release, but I have a very hard time imagining DICE completely redoing the server browser and implementing it into the game after all the work they’ve put into the Battle Log website. Origin simply doesn’t have the framework for it.
12/08/2011 at 21:08 Brise Bonbons says:
Hey, thanks for the followup info!
I admit to being a bit lazy on this one, since BF3 just isn’t high on my list. I guess it’s not that far of a stretch to imagine that what you describe is the best they could do for launch, really – just most of the comments I’ve read about it are pretty positive, so I found your report surprising.
I’ll make sure to check out your links – thanks again!
12/08/2011 at 21:28 Ryz says:
No worries!
Don’t get me wrong, the game is fun and the gunplay is fantastic. The maps in Alpha weren’t that great, but it’s hardly fair to judge the entire game based off that, we didn’t get much in the way of vehicles, etc, etc. My criticisms have very little to do with the game and more to do with what’s being shoehorned onto it.
A lot of us assumed that the Origin requirement and weird web browser launching were just for the Alpha, which would be totally acceptable…but that is looking less and less likely with this confirmation. For me, the game would have to be an absolute revelation in the upcoming Beta to make it worth slogging through their current implementation of the Battle Log.
if they implement an in-game friends list/server browser, that’s different. But the fact it wasn’t there in Alpha and DICE hasn’t swooped in to say that it was only temporary, well….
12/08/2011 at 18:37 Azradesh says:
My thoughts are…
So what?
As long as the game is good and it doesn’t have always one DRM for single player. As long as it works.
People are far to hung up about steam or no steam.
Steam was awful when Half-Life 2 came out and it didn’t stop Half-Life 2 from been amazing.
12/08/2011 at 18:54 Commisar says:
exactly
14/08/2011 at 19:39 dtskull says:
It’s not really about Steam Vs Origin as much as it is Valve Vs EA…
12/08/2011 at 19:05 aircool says:
Not really bothered at all. I doubt I’ll ever buy any games from Origin, but will use it for DLC. After all, I’ve had to install that horrid EA thing that preceded it to buy Battleforge points, Warhammer Online goodies and the code for BFBC2: Vietnam etc… It’s not been any problem apart from difficult to navigate.
If it makes patching easier, then that’s fine with me.
12/08/2011 at 19:14 PearlChoco says:
I have to thank EA for solving my problem. I was on the fence, but now I’m certain: I won’t buy BF3.
I don’t see the big deal about this game anyway: the SP will probably be exactly the same scripted rail shooter as CoD (which I hate) and the MP will probably be very similar to BFBC2 (which I already own and still find fun to play). So why infest my PC with some more bloatware and pay 50 bucks? The graphics? Yeah, the lighting isn’t bad.
12/08/2011 at 19:27 Aithran says:
Meh.
It just means I don’t have any interest in the game at all.
If I was a hardcore BF fan, then maybe I wouldn’t have cared.
But now I can’t be bothered to deal with Origin.
12/08/2011 at 19:36 killmachine says:
i hear competition all the time.
where is the competition if battlefield 3 is origin (and other distributors) only? steam cannot compete with origin in that matter. and origin cannot compete with steam, coze its an EA only platform.
this is no competition. its just another program i dont want to have installed.
for me personally its just an advertising program, nothing more. and bf3 will be the tool that installs it to our pc’s.
13/08/2011 at 08:56 drewski says:
Do you feel the same way about Valve and all the Steamworks games? Valve are no fans of competition either – if you want a direct download of one of their games, you go to Steam. Why is it OK for Valve to have their own games on a monopoly service, but not EA?
I’m more interested in if EA will open Origin up to third party publishers.
12/08/2011 at 19:40 quercus says:
This isn’t a big deal so I don’t know why people are portraying it as such. It is exactly the same as Valve forcing Steam upon us to play their games, or Stardock forcing Impulse on us to play their games.
The only issue is that people need different community/portal/game software applications to play different games, much like the requirement to run different IM software to talk to different people a few years ago (until third party software became available that allowed you to hook into multiple ones).
12/08/2011 at 19:41 The Sentinel says:
I dunno. On the fence a bit here. Origin sounds less of a binding force than Steam is, when it comes right down to it, so that’s one thing in it’s favour right there. Yes, it’s yet another login, yet another account, yet another bit of software…but practically everything we do online these days requires an account, and most of us are smart enough to figure out a way to keep on top of that. so it is really all that much of a pain?
12/08/2011 at 20:13 drossy says:
I suspect a lot of publishers will be keeping a close eye on how this goes for EA and will start their own services if Origin woks out. They’ve been content as PC sales moved from retail to internet, as it didn’t upset the status quo. If (for example) Amazon had the pre-eminient digital distribution service for games, I think its less likely Origin would exist; but Steam upsets the applecart – Valve make games, so there must be a little nagging voice in the back of every the executives whispering “But we’re funding our competitors” everytime they view their Steam sales figures.
13/08/2011 at 08:58 drewski says:
Activision definitely will – they’re already taking Battle.net in that direction – but most of the other publishers probably don’t have the critical mass to support it.
12/08/2011 at 20:16 Khemm says:
Hold on a moment there, so we need Origin installed – that might be a big deal or no problem at all, depending on how it’s been implemented.
Is it more like GFWL or Steam?
When it comes to the former, you can install offline, you merely activate. GFWL automatically starts when your game does.
When it comes to the latter, you have to update Steam and then be online for the whole file decryption and installation process. You have to launch the client before running the game.
I demand answers. NAO!
12/08/2011 at 20:17 gwathdring says:
Doesn’t bother me especially much. Battlefield requires an account for multiplayer anyway, and EA is just as likely to discontinue server support too soon with or without Origin. I don’t feel any safer without Origin attached to it.
12/08/2011 at 20:49 ran93r says:
Don’t much care, already installed Origin to play the alpha.
It works and it’s not like I’m all of a sudden going to go apeshit and buy all my games on there, especially when the prices are hugely inflated. £10 more expensive for digital BF3 over retail, no thank you mister.
12/08/2011 at 21:02 thesonglessbird says:
Used Origin for the alpha test and I didn’t have a problem with it. Obviously, I’d never buy the game from EA directly because I’m not made of money, but Origin itself isn’t too bad.
I don’t really get what it’s needed for though considering all the server browsing and stuff goes on in your web browser.
12/08/2011 at 21:41 Porter says:
I’m not sure how I feel about it forcing me to use Origin, but if it’s an easy signup, non-annoying program, I don’t mind. If it tries to update all the time, throws up messages time to time, etc, I’ll be extremely unhappy about it. Overall, I don’t think it’ll be too much of an issue, here’s hoping.
12/08/2011 at 22:07 Jahandar says:
So how much longer before we have to have an overkill of multiple redundant programs, as every publisher decides to “me too” this?
Boy its going to be great having individual required programs for
Take-Two
Activision
Blizzard
Atari
Atlus
Bethesda/iD
Big Fish Games
Capcom
CD Projekt
Codemasters
Disney
EA
Eidos
Epic
Funcom
JoWood
Konami
LucasArts
Microids
NCSoft
Microsoft
Paradox
PopCap
Petroglyph
Rockstar
Sega
Sony
Square Enix
Stardock
THQ
Ubisoft
Valve
Warner Bros
Any others I missed or that don’t exist yet
And that’s not including all the other online retailers, like GreenManGaming, D2D, Impulse, Desura, etc.
Maybe movie studios can get in on this too, who needs Netflix/itunes/amazon when you could have Rise of the Planet of the Apes coming exclusively on the 20th Century Fox Streaming Site!
12/08/2011 at 22:20 Khemm says:
I don’t know, ask Valve. They’re the dudes who started the whole internet activation/client stupidity.
And everyone loves them for that. Stupid, I know.
12/08/2011 at 22:29 Jahandar says:
I included valve in the list, I don’t excuse them from this either. Although I would point out that when valve started they had to introduce online game purchases to people, when hardly anyone was doing it (aside from a few minor players).
I can cut them a little slack as they were basically carving out the digital distribution industry and getting people used to the idea of buying games online (a fact that now Origin can reap the benefits of).
13/08/2011 at 16:34 daf says:
Activision and Blizzard really count as one and should eventually both use Battle.net, Popcap is now EA.
After that atm most publishers seem happy to use gfwl or steamworks instead of rolling their own, because all in all, creating a platform isn’t trivial and might end up hurting you more then it helps.
Personally I don’t find download services a bad thing, but having to “re-friend” all my friends in steam, gfwl, battle.net, gamespy and now origin is starting to be a bit too much.
12/08/2011 at 22:15 Onaka says:
Origin: Download and install and then always run our clunky software for the chance to buy Battlefield 3 or… Uh… Just download the thing!
12/08/2011 at 23:11 DOLBYdigital says:
If it wasn’t for the ingenious quoted line below, I would’ve cried after reading this article. Thanks RPS for helping me stay on the happy tip
“…inevitably fight like giant sperm whales versus kraken in the magnetic depths of your hard-drive…”
12/08/2011 at 23:58 Etherealsteel says:
I knew EA was going to do this with BF3, force people into using Origin to play the game. I really don’t like it, already have to use Gaming For Windows live even on Steam. I think this confirms it with the inclusion of No Mod support that I’ll not buy this game. I actually have to many games to play now anyway.
13/08/2011 at 00:12 Lemming says:
Alot of the usual for/against in the comments that we”ve seen in all the Origin service articles, but some keep forgetting the one important thing wrong with this, and it’s the one thing that’ll be keeping me personally away from Origin:
EA is not ‘doing what Valve did with HL2′ as far as I can see, because (and correct me if I’m mistaken) they’ve only expressed an interest in doing this for EA games only. Steam acts more like a retailer (except for Valve games of which there are hardly many), creating a needed buffer between publisher and customer for games of many different developers and publishers. It’s what keeps prices competitive.
Where is the competition in Origin? If it becomes the only place to get EA games online, then you can bet your arse they’ll have a significantly high price tag attached – and stay that way long past the time they have any right to.
We better hope this isn’t successful, because if it is, other publishers will follow suit and competition amongst the big publishers will be zero.
13/08/2011 at 05:34 Kaira- says:
Umm, you know, there are other DD-services than Steam. They also happen to sell EA-games, like BF3.
13/08/2011 at 09:01 drewski says:
EA definitely won’t be anywhere near as successful with Origin as Valve are with Steam if they don’t open it up to third parties.
Which, of course, doesn’t mean they will…
13/08/2011 at 14:44 Lemming says:
Kaira, I was aware of other services existing of course, but I was under the impression that EA games were now going to be Origin only.
13/08/2011 at 18:16 Gnarf says:
Yeah, uh, I think it’s mostly just Valve and Blizzard (currently) doing that kind of thing. You can get Battlefield 3 from Impulse (at least if you’re on the American Internet) and GamersGate and stuff.
13/08/2011 at 01:10 smg77 says:
If it’s not on Steam it’s invisible as far as I’m concerned. I’m the sure the game will still make money for EA but it could have made them a lot more if they had been more reasonable.
13/08/2011 at 03:47 Boozebeard says:
I like steam because it lets me have all my games in one place. If it’s not on steam I wont be buying it. I’m sure RO2 will be satisfying all my FPS needs by then anyway
13/08/2011 at 05:55 sexyresults says:
Download origin, play and finish B3, uninstall both.
13/08/2011 at 08:05 vanzer says:
I pretty much only buy stuff thats released on steam.
I don’t really want another pain in the ass delivery system like origin.
Having to put up with Blizzards thing & Steam is about all i can handle.
13/08/2011 at 08:40 Grape says:
You’re so right. No other game on the planet has men with guns shooting each other.
Yeah, because that’s all Battlefield is.
Dumbass.
13/08/2011 at 10:21 virtualmatrix258 says:
Not a big deal. I’ve had very good luck with Origin so far and they even gave me a free download today for preordering BF3. I’ve found that their servers are fast as hell, easily take up my bandwidth which I am fond of. If I want to use the Steam overlay that’s fine, I just add a non steam game into the .exe library and I can talk to my friends. I have a nice computer so I don’t even care if I have to keep Origin on in the background, barely takes up resources as it is. EA isn’t out to screw us. Origin makes that horrible DRM diminish and it’s so much easier to keep BF3 up to date.
13/08/2011 at 13:13 ulix says:
Thanks EA, great move.
You’re saving me 50€ this fall. Its jam-packed with good games anyway, wasn’t sure to be able to buy and enjoy all of them. Now I can rest assured that it is one game less that I need to buy.
13/08/2011 at 15:47 jackflash says:
Bad Company 2 was one of the few games that I paid full price for when it came out, I liked it that much (pre-ordered on Steam based on how awesome the beta was). But I’m not going to play ball with this power play. If EA think they are going to become a player in online publishing by holding BF3 hostage to their platform, they’re just going to lose a lot of sales.
13/08/2011 at 17:08 Davee says:
*Sigh* I guess it was inevitable. I surrender. I’m installing selling my soul to Origin now.
14/08/2011 at 08:12 innociv says:
On the other side of the same token, isn’t it wrong that Steam REQUIRE that it act as DRM for games sold on it?
Impulse allows games sold on it to use any DRM they wish.
14/08/2011 at 08:26 Big Daddy Dugger says:
Can’t you add non steam games to your steam library anyways? That’s what I’ve heard.
14/08/2011 at 12:01 bill says:
Be interesting to see how this pans out.
EA seemed to be positioning BF3 as their CoD killer – but taking it off the main PC distribution system isn’t going to do it any favors in that regard. (unless they don’t care about PC and only the console sales).
They’re basically betting that the lure of BF3 will transcend the lure of Steam.
Of course, if it pays off then they’ll have a huge user-base for future origin games.
PS/ Is Origin actually anything new yet? Last time i checked it just seemed to be their old crappy digital-river EA store but with a new logo pasted on. In which case I’m not touching it!
15/08/2011 at 15:08 Bats says:
Well thanks EA for helping me make my decision regarding BF3. I really wanted to try out the single player, but I have no interest in Origin, and I don’t want it on my system, I have too much shit on there already, adding another one to the mix when it offers nothing I want or need? Yeah no thanks.
Everyone saying EA and Valve are the same here… uh, so not the case. EA is doing this with only games they publish, they don’t have any 3rd parties on there, and even if they do, you think other publishers are gonna be happy giving EA their money when they are already giving it to Valve?
We’ll see if the service is up to par in a few years, maybe then it’ll be worth installing, until then… there’s over 300 games on my Steam library that are begging to be played. I don’t need to load up another program just for 1 game when I have so many options.
15/08/2011 at 16:40 neuroMarauder says:
You bitches are the biggest limpdick pussies I have ever seen. EA sucks balls, no shit. But shut your fucking little girl whining and take it like a man.
Bitch pussies.
17/08/2011 at 01:48 Nielk1 says:
Don’t all the new free MMOs have their own launchers that border on mini stores. Heck look at games like ‘Wings of Prey’! It has a mini-Steam-like-thing (Yuplay) that handles all updates, activations, account management, and even MP matchmaking! Personally if BF3 was on Steam, and it downloaded some sort of internal Origin thing, I wouldn’t mind. I would prefer it be Origin Lite or something allowing you to drop into full Origin if you want via the key, but I wouldn’t mind.
That said, everything EA touches turns to shit so, we will see.